<chapter id="hdbk-intro">
  <title>Introduction</title>
  <sect1 id="hdbk-intro-about">
    <title>About &bibletime;</title>
    <para>&bibletime; is a Bible study tool with support for
    different types of texts and languages. Even large amounts of works
    modules are easy to install and manage. It is built on the
    <ulink url="http://www.crosswire.org/sword">Sword</ulink> library,
    which provides the back-end functionality for &bibletime;, such
    as viewing Bible text, searching etc. Sword is the flagship product
    of the <ulink url="http://www.crosswire.org">Crosswire Bible
    Society</ulink>.</para>

    <para>&bibletime; is designed to be used with works encoded in
    one of the formats supported by the Sword project. Complete
    information on the supported document formats can be found in the 
    <ulink url="http://www.crosswire.org/sword/develop/index.jsp"> 
    developers section</ulink> of the Sword Project, Crosswire Bible
    Society.</para>

    <sect2 id="hdbk-intro-works">
      <title>Available works</title>
      <para>Over 200 documents in 50 languages are available from the 
      <ulink url="http://www.crosswire.org">Crosswire Bible
      Society</ulink>. These include: 
      <variablelist>
        <varlistentry>
          <term>Bibles</term>
          <listitem>
            <para>The full Bible text, with optional things like
            Strong's Numbers, headings and/or footnotes in the text.
            Bibles are available in many languages, and include not
            only modern versions, but also ancient texts like the Codex
            Leningradensis ("WLC", Hebrew), and the Septuagint ("LXX",
            Greek). This is the most advanced section in the library of
            the Sword project.</para>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
          <term>Books</term>
          <listitem>
            <para>Books available include "Imitation of Christ", "Enuma
            Elish", and "Josephus: The Complete Works"</para>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
          <term>Commentaries</term>
          <listitem>
            <para>Commentaries available include classics like John
            Wesley's "Notes on the Bible", Matthew Henry's commentary
            and Luther's "Commentary on Galatians." With the 
            <emphasis>Personal</emphasis> commentary you can 
            <link linkend="hdbk-op-parts-desk-write"> record your own
            personal notes</link> to sections of the Bible.</para>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
          <term>Daily devotionals</term>
          <listitem>
            <para>Many people appreciate these daily portions from
            God's word. Available works include Daily Light on the
            Daily Path, and the Losungen.</para>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
          <term>Lexicons/Dictionaries</term>
          <listitem>
            <para>Lexicons available include: Robinson's Morphological
            Analysis Codes, Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon and the
            International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. Dictionaries
            available include Strong's Hebrew Bible Dictionary,
            Strong's Greek Bible Dictionary, Webster's Revised
            Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language 1913, Nave's
            Topical Bible.</para>
          </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
      </variablelist></para>
    </sect2>
    <sect2 id="hdbk-intro-motivation">
      <title>Motivation</title>
      <para>Our desire is to serve God, and to do our part to help
      others grow in their relationship with Him. We have striven to
      make this a powerful, quality program, and still make it simple
      and intuitive to operate. It is our desire that God be praised,
      as He is the source of all good things.</para>
      <blockquote>
        <attribution>James 1:17, NASB</attribution>
        <para>Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from
        above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there
        is no variation or shifting shadow.</para>
      </blockquote>
      <para>God bless you as you use this program.</para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>
</chapter>
